23597: (Chamberlain) Haiti policeman killed in cleanup operation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Haitian police and U.N.
troops moved into a slum neighborhood on Sunday and cleared street
barricades that paralyzed a part of the capital.
     One Haitian policeman was killed by gunfire and several people were
injured in the operation, which began when armored vehicles and dump trucks
rolled into the Bel-Air neighborhood at 3:30 a.m., a police official said.
     Some 200 Haitian police, backed by 100 U.N. troops and civilian
police, cleared away wrecked cars and other debris that blocked traffic in
the neighborhood since Sept. 30.
     Police set up a command post in a Catholic church at the heart of
Bel-Air that has served as a gathering point for protesters, a spokesman
for the U.N. civilian police forces said.
     "It is a physical sweep of the streets ... so that we can return to
normal traffic in this area, or as normal as it can be for these people,
who have been essentially taken hostage," said the spokesman, Canadian
police officer Daniel Maskaluk.
     The poor neighborhood is full of supporters of former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who went into exile amid an armed revolt in
February.
     Aristide supporters, calling for his return, blocked the streets to
keep out police, whom they accuse of illegally arresting and killing
Aristide supporters. Haiti's police force includes many former soldiers who
took part in the rebellion that drove out Aristide.
     "The wave of repression and killings against us will not deter us.
We'll continue to demand Aristide's return, and he will return," a Bel-Air
resident who gave only his first name, Michel, said of Sunday's operation.
     A 26-year-old man awaiting treatment at a hospital said he was an
innocent bystander shot twice in the stomach when police exchanged gunfire
with Bel-Air residents.
     More than 50 people have been killed this month in clashes between
pro- and anti-Aristide gangs in Bel-Air and other slums where the former
president had strong support.
     Most of the killings have occurred in the Cite Soleil slum in the
capital, Port-au-Prince. But streets in Bel-Air have been impassible and
schools and businesses have closed sporadically due to outbreaks of
violence.
     Sunday's action came two days after Haitian interim President Boniface
Alexandre urged action against Aristide supporters he portrayed as bandits
and terrorists.
     "They are terrorists and they should be treated as such," Alexandre
said in a speech. "The police should make more effort to infiltrate the
terrorist groups and neutralize them."
     Troops and civilian police officers from Benin, France, Spain, Canada
and Brazil, brought in to stabilize the impoverished Caribbean nation after
Aristide's ouster, participated in the operation.
     The U.N. operation, known as MINUSTAH, is comprised of about 3,100
troops and civilian police officers. A MINUSTAH official said that figure
should reach 6,200 troops and 2,400 foreign civilian police officers by the
end of November.